Funny, I see where the author is coming from and agree to an extent: capacity for abstract thought is marked by ability to mentally manipulate concepts, not things.

But in software engineering, I think the ability to analyze the information which constitutes a domain and then synthesize ergonomic abstractions out of that information is more relevant. Martin Fowler would call it domain modeling, I just call it software design.

Of course I also obsess over names of things, interface design, and mental models, so I’m biased!